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MARCH 6-12, 2019

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THE LEDE

“I come up in the city. Downtown was the place to be. It’s where all the action was — all up and down the roads here. This time of day, [it would be] just like a baseball game, but it would be 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and there’d be people walking this way, both sides of the street. But things change. Hopefully, I’ll be around when it makes a comeback.”

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

ROBERT MOODY, SHOE REPAIRMAN, PHOTOGRAPHED AT BROADWAY SHOE REPAIR ON WEDNESDAY MAY 26 riverfronttimes.com

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A Story of Two Tales

ueling tours of the Workhouse are part of what makes it so difficult to get a clear picture of the older of St. Louis’ two jails. Generations of people locked up there have described hellish conditions while generations of city officials have insisted it’s generally fine. For this week’s cover story, RFT staff writer Danny Wicentowski dives into the competing narratives as another, potentially final, showdown over the aging facility approaches. It’s an illuminating look, not only at the controversial jail, but the way the fight over how it’s perceived has shifted along with changes in power in the city. —Doyle Murphy, editor in chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy

E D I T O R I A L Digital Editor Jaime Lees Interim Managing Editor Daniel Hill Staff Writer Danny Wicentowski Contributors Cheryl Baehr, Eric Berger, Jeannette Cooperman, Mike Fitzgerald, Andy Paulissen, Justin Poole, Theo Welling, Ymani Wince Columnists Thomas Chimchards, Ray Hartmann Editorial Interns Jack Killeen, Riley Mack A R T

& P R O D U C T I O N Art Director Evan Sult Production Manager Haimanti Germain M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Advertising Director Colin Bell Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Chuck Healy Digital Sales Manager Chad Beck Director of Public Relations Brittany Forrest

COVER Eye of the Beholder

C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

The gross violations of health and safety at St. Louis’ infamous Workhouse are either getting worse, or are already solved — depending on who tells the story

E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein www.euclidmediagroup.com N A T I O N A L A D V E R T I S I N G VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

Cover photo by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

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This page: a still from Heather Taylor’s recent Workhouse walkthrough

INSIDE The Lede Hartmann News The Big Mad Feature Cafe Short Orders Reeferfront Times Culture Savage Love 6

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HARTMANN Mission Discontinued The strange case against Kim Gardner’s former gumshoe just got even stranger BY RAY HARTMANN

his is just not normal. On May 26, Special Prosecutor Jerry Carmody quietly — and stunningly — filed a motion to withdraw from handling the perjury and evidence-tampering case against ex-FBI agent William Tisaby. It received scant local media attention, but it was big news. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner had hired Tisaby, a former FBI agent from Michigan, to investigate then-Gov. Eric Greitens in 2018. Greitens was subsequently indicted for invasion of privacy related to his infamous extra-marital affair involving basement bondage with his hairdresser. In the leadup to the trial, Greitens’ legal dream team of top local attorneys had skillfully exploited flaws in the prosecution’s case. They pounced on inconsistencies and misstatements by Tisaby, and it was over. Gardner dropped the case on May 15, 2018 — three days into jury selection — after a judge ruled she could be called as a witness to Tisaby’s conduct in the case. “Greitens and his attorneys lauded the move as a ‘great victory’ as they spoke to the media on the courthouse steps,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported at the time. Two weeks after the great victory, Greitens resigned in disgrace as governor. This same great victor and his lawyers had crawled to Gardner with an offer to resign if she would drop a second felony indictment for computer tampering. It alleged misuse of his “Mission Continues” charity during the 2016 campaign. That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. There’s a legal term

of art for what ensued: payback. First, there was the vindictive decision to waste scarce taxpayer dollars to pursue and punish Tisaby as a way to punish Gardner. By the Post-Dispatch’s tally as far back as 2019, Carmody’s firm had been paid nearly $400,000. It’s unclear how much the total tab to the taxpayers has grown by now. Additionally, Greitens’ lawyers initiated professional misconduct charges against Gardner, and these are now before the Missouri Supreme Court, potentially threatening her law license. This is an extremely rare step and a reprehensible one. But for pure strangeness, none of it can top what’s happening with Carmody. The man brought in on the white steed is just bolting, with little or no explanation. That sort of thing doesn’t happen, not mid-case, not in a highprofile prosecution, not after an attorney has received large sums of taxpayer dollars. “I don’t know of another case in which a special prosecutor who was assigned to prosecute a case, investigated the case and obtained an indictment against the defendant, and then asked to withdraw from the prosecution of that case,” Pace University Professor Bennett Gershman, a leading national expert on prosecutorial ethics issues, told me. “We all can speculate on his reason. My best guess is that he has no confidence in the merits of the case and does not want to undertake any further actions.” Frankly, I just interviewed Gershman four weeks ago about the Gardner case and hadn’t planned to contact him so soon. But this is too weird. Still, one need not be a lawyer to understand a simple principle: There was no public purpose served by prosecuting Tisaby. None. Even if he had done the worst of what has been alleged — and there’s no reason to assume he did — there was no consequence to anyone, not even Greitens. Remember, the case was dropped. Was it really worth all this time, energy and tax dollars to go after some guy from Michigan over a dropped case? There is no victim here, certainly not Greitens, who might have been inconvenienced

by Gardner’s ill-fated prosecution but hardly was pressured out of office because of it. Even if she wanted to, Gardner cannot take credit for getting Greitens to resign. From the moment the estranged (now former) husband of Greitens’ mistress went to KMOV with a sobbing recording of her telling him what the slimeball had done to her, Greitens was toast. It was the politicians of his own Republican Party in Jefferson City — bitter after being bullied and abused by Greitens — who did him in. They didn’t need any help from Gardner. As for Tisaby, Carmody’s resignation would suggest the prosecution is not going so well. The only explanation he offered was a weak reference to how long the case had dragged on: “I have resigned as Special Prosecutor … after nearly three years. It has been nearly two years since a St. Louis Grand Jury indicted Mr. Tisaby on perjury charges and a trial date has not yet been rescheduled. We have other pressing matters currently scheduled in the coming months and they all need substantial attention.” That’s nice. But didn’t his law firm also have pressing matters in 2018 when he took on the case? A more believable explanation is Gershman’s, which is that the case isn’t going anywhere. Another is that Carmody’s prospects for getting paid going forward got dimmer with the election of Mayor Tishaura Jones, an ally of Gardner. She replaced ex-Mayor Lyda Krewson, who clashed with Gardner. That’s the theory of multiple insiders I spoke with. They say Carmody probably cannot get paid going forward without a new appropriation from the city’s Board of Estimate and Apportionment, comprised of the mayor, comptroller and aldermanic president. And that’s not all. The same reliable sources offered me this startling tidbit: Tisaby has been offered — and has rejected — a plea-bargain deal from Carmody’s team. I’m told that Tisaby could have received no jail time (actually credit for three days served) and a small amount of probation, followed by expungement of his record. That speaks volumes about the seriousness of this po-

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litical errand. I provided Carmody an email opportunity to confirm or amplify that, and he had not responded as of press time. The notion of Carmody having offered a deal to Tisaby would seem perfectly logical. No one has any reason to care about Tisaby doing time even if he were guilty as charged. But any admission of guilt would be an enormous victory for Team Carmody and especially a few interested parties, including the disgraced Greitens and the police officers’ union. Perhaps Carmody could draw inspiration from the sage words of another member of the St. Louis legal community when faced with the question of whether to hold up or fold up. “It is time for us to move on. I remain confident that we have the evidence required to pursue charges. But sometimes, pursuing charges is not the right or just thing to do for our city or state.” That was Gardner explaining in May 2018 why she accepted the offer from Greitens and his lawyers to resign if she dropped charges. That’s how the story ended three years ago, from her perspective, and how it really should end now. But since it hasn’t, there’s one more stunning item of irony I stumbled upon: Jermaine Wooten, Tisaby’s attorney, has filed a motion to compel prosecutor Carmody to provide the defense with grand jury testimony and other materials Wooten claims have been improperly withheld by the prosecution. Sound familiar? It’s right along the lines of what Gardner was accused of doing by Greitens’ dream team. And if that wasn’t enough, Wooten doubled down last month by filing a motion to sanction Carmody for failing to follow the motion to compel. Paybacks are hell. But at least they’re normal, which is more than anyone can say for the Tisaby travesty. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhar tmann1952@gmail.com or catch him on Donnybrook at 7 p.m. on Thursdays on the Nine Network and St. Louis In the Know with Ray Hartmann from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

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NEWS

JeffCo Shootout Reveals Previous Killing Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

Tanya Gould was reported missing on May 9. | VIA GOFUNDME

efferson County Sheriff’s deputies knew there was a good chance they would find two bodies after what was described as a deadly shootout between SWAT members and a barricaded man last month. The body of the barricaded man, since identified as year old Anthony Legens, was there as expected. But investigators had also been looking on the night of May 28 for another man — and they found a dead woman instead. For weeks, investigators had been searching for year old Jerry Crew, who was last seen on April 21 in Cedar Hill, according to a sheriff’s spokesman. Detectives had eventually come to suspect he had been killed, although no one at the sheriff’s office has publicly revealed why they thought so. Whatever the reason, they still didn’t have a body. The investigation eventually took them to Legens’ home at 8529 Lake Drive in Cedar Hill. Sheriff Dave Marshak later said at a news conference that SWAT officers arrived late in the day May 28 and scouted out the house for a couple of hours before eventually moving in to serve a search warrant. “Once the suspect knew that officers were on the scene, they were immediately met with gunfire, Marshak said. For more than an hour, deputies and Legens traded gunfire, according to the sheriff. Sheriff’s Deputy Zach Faulkner, a six-year veteran, was hit “below his tactical vest and rushed to the hospital while fellow SWAT officers and Legens continued their standoff, Marshak said.

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Legens was eventually shot and died at the scene, though the sheriff’s office has yet to release further details on the circumstances that ended in his death. According to a sheriff’s news release, when it was safe for deputies to enter the house, they looked for signs of Crew, but he wasn’t there. Instead, they found the body of a woman. On Friday, Marshak confirmed her identity as 1 year old Tanya Gould. Detectives believe Legens shot her well before the May 28 showdown with the SWAT team. Sheriff’s spokesman Grant Bissell said in an email that Gould had last been heard from on May 5 and reported missing on May 9. Even before Marshak’s announcement, Gould’s mother knew the dead woman found in the home was her daughter. Cindy Gould and a friend of her daughter say Tanya Gould had been in an abusive relationship with Legens. Legens had a lengthy criminal record, including convictions for assault and drug crimes. “This was a tragedy. It’s a ripple effect, Cindy Gould told Fox 2. “I pray that out all of this darkness and evilness that light and goodness will come out of it, and there will be help for domestic abuse victims to change laws, to help the mentally ill and their families. Daisha Lipp, who created a GoFundMe page to raise money for Cindy Gould, hoped to shift the focus away from the accused killer to Tanya Gould. “This should not be a story of a monster, Lipp said in the GoFundMe post. “This is a story of a beautiful soul taken too soon. Tanya was murdered by a man she had made several attempts to

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escape from. The post described Gould as the “family’s backbone during a series of recent tragedies, including the death of Gould’s father and brother. “Even through the unfortunate loss of her very dear loved ones over the years Tanya managed to stay so happy, so positive and so genuine, Lipp wrote. “I’ve honestly never met anyone like her. The case is still being sorted out. Crime scene investigators spent multiple days at Legens’ house, seizing multiple guns and drugs, according to the sheriff’s office. Faulkner, who was shot during

Flawed Data Makes It Hard to Track Vaccine Equity Written by

ALEX SMITH, KCUR This story is part of a reporting partnership that includesKCUR, NPR and KHN.

hroughout the COVID-19 vaccination effort, public health officials and politicians have insisted that providing shots equitably across racial and ethnic groups is a top priority. But it’s been left up to states to decide how to do that and to collect racial and ethnic data on vaccinated individuals so states can track how well they’re doing reaching all groups. The gaps and inconsistencies in the data have made it difficult to understand who’s actually getting shots. Just as an uneven approach to con-

Investigators are still searching for Jerry Crew. | JEFFERSON COUNTY SHERIFF the May 28 confrontation, underwent surgery and spent much of the week in the intensive care unit. Marshak said at the end of last week the deputy was conscious and his condition was improving. The investigation continues along with the search for Crew. The sheriff asks anyone with information about Crew’s location to call the sheriff’s detective bureau at 9 1 . n

taining the coronavirus led to a greater toll for Black and Latino communities, the inconsistent data guiding vaccination efforts may be leaving the same groups out on vaccines, said Dr. Kirsten BibbinsDomingo, an epidemiologist at the University of California-San Francisco. “At the very least, we need the same uniform standards that every state is using, and every location that administers vaccine is using, so that we can have some comparisons and design better strategies to reach the populations we’re trying to reach,” Bibbins-Domingo said. Now that federal, state and local governments are easing mask requirements and ending other measures to prevent the spread of the virus, efforts to boost vaccination rates in underserved communities are even more urgent. At St. James United Methodist Church, a cornerstone for many in the Black community in Kansas City, Missouri, inperson services recently resumed after being online for more than a year. St. James has also been hosting vaccination events designed to reach people in the neighborhood.

“People are really grieving not only the loss of their loved ones, but the loss of a whole year, a loss of being lonely, a loss being at home, not being able to come to church. Not being able to go out into the community,” said Yvette Richards, St. James’ director of community connection. Missouri’s population is 11 percent African American, but COVID cases among African Americans accounted for 25 percent of the total cases for the state, according to an analysis by KFF. Richards said St. James has lost many congregants to the coronavirus, and the empty pews where they once sat on Sundays serve as stark reminders of all this community has been through during the pandemic. Missouri’s public covid data appears to show robust data on vaccination rates broken down by race and ethnicity. But several groups are seen lagging far behind on vaccinations, including African Americans, who appear to have a vaccination rate of just 17.6 percent, nearly half of the 33 percent rate for the state as a whole. To Dr. Rex Archer, director of the Kansas City health department, one number is a giveaway that this data isn’t right. It shows a completed vaccination rate of 64 percent for “multiracial” Missourians. Such an exceptionally high rate for one group beggars belief, according to Archer. “So, there’s some huge problem with the way the state is collecting race and ethnicity under covid vaccination,” Archer said. Missouri state officials have acknowledged since February that this data is wrong, but they haven’t managed to fix it or explain exactly what’s causing it. Archer suggested the inflated multiracial rate is probably due to different racial data being reported when individuals receive first and second shots. Other problems have been detected, including missing racial and ethnic data for many people who have been vaccinated, and the use of multiple categories such as “other” and “unknown.” The state also noted it used national racial percentages in the state’s vaccination data rather than actual percentages based on the state’s population. For example, earlier in the vaccination effort, the state used national racial data, which shows nearly 6 percent of the population is Asian, even though Missouri’s population is 2.2 percent Asian. Health officials are working to target vaccination campaigns in communities where rates are low, but Archer said the state’s data provides little help. “I mean, we have to look at it, but it’s got too many variables to be something we can count on,” Archer said.

Rev. Emmanuel Cleaver III welcomes congregants to St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri. | CARLOS MORENO/KCUR

Yvette Richards, director of community connection at St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, checks temperatures before Sunday morning services | CARLOS MORENO/KCUR Though racial and ethnic categories are clearly defined in national U.S. Census data, the same data is not collected uniformly by states. For example, South Carolina’s vaccination data lumps together Asians, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders in one category. In Utah, residents can pick more than one race. Wyoming doesn’t report racial or ethnic data for vaccinations at all. Bibbins-Domingo said the missing or inconsistent data doesn’t necessarily mean tracking equity is a lost cause. Vaccination rates for census tracts where racial and ethnic data is known can be used as a proxy to estimate vaccine al-

locations. However, Bibbins-Domingo argued that the pandemic has shined a light on racial data problems that have persisted far too long in U.S. public health. “What my hope is, is that our lessons from covid really cause all of us to think about the infrastructure we need within our state and nationally to make sure we are prepared next time,” Bibbins-Domingo said. “Data is our friend.” Local leaders and health officials in Missouri are scrambling to boost vaccination rates, especially among vulnerable communities, after Republican Gov. Mike Parson recently announced steps to urge

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residents back to working in person. Parson ordered state workers back to the office in May and said he would end additional federal pandemic-related benefits for unemployed workers in June, despite vaccination rates across the state being well below what Missouri health experts had hoped to achieve. Jackson County, Missouri, which includes most of Kansas City, authorized $5 million in federal CARES funding last month to increase vaccinations in six ZIP codes with large Black populations and low vaccination rates. The project will address problems of both access and hesitancy and focus on reaching out to individuals and neighborhoods. Although many of the state’s vaccination efforts have involved large mass events, St. James Pastor Jackie McCall said she’s been talking with many in her church and community who need encouragement to have faith in the vaccines. “So let’s go ahead and let’s trust,” McCall told congregants. “Let’s trust the process. Let’s trust God. Let’s trust the science.” This story is part of a reporting partnership that includes KCUR, NPR and KHN. KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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THE BIG MAD Queen for a Day Political policing, Robberson sets sail and Ellie Kemper unveiled Compiled by

DANIEL HILL

elcome back to the Big Mad, the RFT’s weekly roundup of righteous rage! Because we know your time is short and your anger is hot: ELLIE KEMPER UNVEILED: The Veiled Prophet can’t hide what it is, and, to Ellie Kemper’s credit, she didn’t try to defend its “unquestionably racist, sexist, and elitist past,” as those were the exact words she used to describe the group in a June 7 Instagram post. It was her first public comment addressing her participation in what she had believed, as a nineteen-year-old in 1999, was just a “debutante ball” in her hometown of St. Louis. “I wasn’t aware of this history at the time,” she said, “but ignorance is no excuse. I was old enough to have educated myself before getting involved.” Kemper directed her apology “to the people I’ve disappointed” and vowed to “use my privilege in support of the better society I think we’re capable of becoming.” Hours later, the Veiled Prophet Organization finally released its own apology for “the actions and images from our history,” adding “our hope is that moving forward, the community sees us for who we are today.” The statement is a significant step, but where was this public reckoning years ago? Why did it take decades of protest before it accepted Black and Jewish members in 1978? It has no excuse for the silence. It has no excuse, as well, for its failure to speak out as Kemper became the unfair symbol — a “KKK princess,” as some on Twitter dubbed her — of the group’s 140-year-old history. In a gross way, it’s fitting: In 1999, Kemper smiled and waved as she was introduced as the Veiled Prophet’s 105th “Queen of Love and Beauty,” while next to her, a man from St. Louis’ elite, the Veiled Prophet himself, was safely hidden. Maybe, finally, the veil can start slipping for good. SAIL AWAY TOD: For more than five years, Tod Robberson has been doing a tiresome but absolutely dedicated bit as a hopelessly out-of-touch editorial page editor dropped into a Midwestern city. (We thought the “sailor, tennis player” description in his Twitter bio was a little

too on the nose, but sometimes you have to hit the audience over the head when building themes.) And while you have to admire the work of a performer who has doggedly refused to break character for a half-decade, it seemed the joke had run its course. So we weren’t Big Mad to read the first part of a recent column announcing he was moving away. We skimmed through the humblebrag tour of his career, figuring this would at least be the last time we had to witness this J. Peterman knockoff routine. And then he hit us with the twist: He’s going to telecommute half the time from West Hartford, Connecticut, and rent an apartment in St. Louis. Damnit, Tod, of course you are! We’re not even mad at you. We just hate ourselves for not anticipating such an obvious plot point. By the time he added that the Connecticut house was nearly 300 years old, “has its own Wikipedia page and is on the National Register of Historic Places,” we were so thoroughly embarrassed for not seeing this coming that we could only walk into the Sea of St. Louis and hope to be run over by his schooner. TO SELF-SERVE AND PROJECT: As with many of his GOP colleagues, State Rep. Nick Schroer presents as a fervent backer of licking every police boot he can put near a podium — but in St. Louis City, Schroer wants the boot to lick him. On June 2, Schroer, who represents parts of St. Charles and O’Fallon, called for a special legislative session so he can try and assert state control over the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Schroer, casting himself in the hero role, accused Mayor Tishaura Jones of trying to “defund police” — though her plan would move only a small portion of the department’s total budget in order to fund expanded community services and non-police forms of crime prevention. On its face, Schroer’s press conference was an egregious photo-op: Schroer got to be the center of the show, threatening city Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner that he would “push for the state to take back control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department” if she doesn’t prosecute more criminals. The optics were revealing, as the event featured five white GOP legislators from surrounding counties. Not a single member of the city’s government or police were invited — but then again, why would they be? For Schroer, actually visiting St. Louis neighborhoods or talking to its leaders would imply that improving a place’s policing takes, well, understanding its people and geography. It’s much easier to show up unannounced, trash the city, and hoof it back to St. Charles without breaking a sweat. n

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Heather Taylor, a senior public safety advisor, filmed portions of a May 7 inspection of the Workhouse. Her footage shows leaking, hole-riddled ceilings, insects on the kitchen floor and non-usable bathrooms deemed unfixable and inhumane. | SCREENSHOT VIA HEATHER TAYLOR

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Eye of the Beholder The gross violations of health and safety at St. Louis’ infamous Workhouse are either getting worse, or are already solved — depending on who tells the story

BY DANNY WICENTOWSKI

or a working jail, major parts of the Workhouse don’t work. Every time it rains, water leaks through the flat tin roof and pools on the gymnasium floor. In its kitchen, which produces only bread, cockroaches scurry near a wall si ed row of nonfunctioning refrigerators that serve as storage. Entire housing units are empty, leaving the bathrooms and showers to deteriorate in a slime of soap scum, rust and dirt. etainees often describe the Workhouse in the most extreme terms. Some call it hell. Officially, St. Louis calls it the Medium Security Institution. Inhabited parts of the jail are rarely seen by outside eyes. et on April 2 , St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and a retinue of some of the most powerful elected officials in St. Louis swept through the year old facility, conducting inspections and interviews unlike anything seen in the jail’s history. Along with Jones, the tour group included Congresswoman Cori Bush and Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the city’s top prosecutor. The group toured both of the city’s embattled jails that overcast Saturday, starting with the downtown City Justice Center, the site of multiple recent uprisings, and then heading north to the riverfront industrial area, where the Workhouse looms in a pocket of barbed wire facing an auto parts business. All told, the group spent five hours in the controversial facility, winding their way through its wide white hallways and cluttered

medical offices. They listened as a line of five handcuffed detainees in yellow uniforms took turns describing the Workhouse as they knew it, from being sprayed with mace and left in their cells for hours, their skin burning, to being forced to go months without shoes, a condition that makes the free ing nights — which at times are so cold that one man said he could see his own breath — that much more miserable. At the end of the tour, a press conference waited for Jones outside the aging jail. What she had witnessed that day, she said, had only further convinced her what must be done: The Workhouse has to close. The visit had left her “very disappointed and shocked and frustrated,” she added. Bush, a former Ferguson protester, was also shaken by what she had seen and heard that day. The inmates had described repeated water shutoffs and meals containing an unidentifiable protein that they nicknamed “rat back. As Bush walked through a housing unit, she said, she could hear detainees chanting after her, “Free the slaves!” “We didn’t just want to complain about what we think is happening, we wanted access to see what’s actually happening,” Bush told the press, her voice rising in open disgust. “If you had seen the filth, the utter filth, the trash, the bugs “This is our work,” she added firmly. “And now that we are in a position to do something about it, that thing will happen.” But in the following weeks, a

different group latched onto the issue of the Workhouse’s conditions — and among them were longtime critics of the campaign to close the facility, including Joe Vaccaro, the chair of the Board of Aldermen’s public safety committee. He openly questioned whether Jones and Bush had exaggerated the conditions they claimed to confront that day. Two weeks later, on a Wednesday morning in May, Vaccaro attempted to stage his own tour of the Workhouse, though with a different aim. Unlike the mayor’s group, he invited a TV news crew and reporters to accompany him on what he vowed would be a truly “transparent” tour of the Workhouse. But Vaccaro’s media tour barely got through the front door. Instead, it ran into Heather Taylor.

n April 15, Heather Taylor joined the incoming Jones administration as a senior advisor to the new public safety director. A recently retired St. Louis homicide detective, Taylor had spent years as the president and public face of the Ethical Society of Police, a position that brought her into repeated clashes with the department over its failure to challenge the racism and abuse still thriving in its ranks. Taylor had less than a month on her new job when on May 12 she confronted Vaccaro’s attempted tour at the Workhouse entrance. By then, Taylor had already spent hours inspecting the facility, including a trip just a few days prior with jail Superintendent Jeffrey Carson.

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That visit happened to occur on a day of heavy rainfall, and she saw a very different scene than the visitors might have on the sunny morning of Vaccaro’s visit. Carson, who has supervised the jail since 201 , had guided her into the gymnasium to view the pools of water on its floor. e had shown her the largely decommissioned kitchen, where he revealed that the ancient gas powered ranges were so unsafe that he had ordered them removed. As his explanation continued, Taylor pointed her smartphone’s camera at the discolored floor, filming two cockroaches crawling near a large wooden table where detainees bake bread. er experience fit with what Jones, Bush and others had reported from their April 24 trip. But on May 12, their claims about trash, bugs and filth became the impetus for Vaccaro to stage a countertour. It was the latest example of the city government’s complicated relationship with the Workhouse. Last summer, the Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to close the aging facility by the end of 2020 — a deadline that passed as the both city jails struggled to adapt to the pandemic. Although Vaccaro had supported the earlier bill, he and other officials began pushing back as the calls to close the Workhouse heightened during the mayoral campaign season — a contest in which Jones, the eventual winner, promised to close the Workhouse in her first 100 days in office. Vaccaro had not been invited on

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0 5 + m r estaur o r f s r e g ants r u b ! 6

Courtesy of Pit Stop STL

SAVE THE DATE! St. Louis Burger Week is back for its fourth year! Support your local restaurants for St. Louis Burger Week and enjoy $6 burgers all week long! The idea is to get people to embrace the food, and culture of St. Louis while getting them out to eat, drink, and try new places. Navigate your way through the city with our official St. Louis Burger Week passport- will be available online and participating burger week restaurants closer to the event. Grab four or more stamps, submit your information and a picture of your passport, and be entered to win gift cards and an ultimate St. Louis Burger Week prize pack.

JULY 18-25TH, 2021 PRESENTED BY:

Est. 1879

MORE BEING ANNOUNCED DAILY!

BURGERWEEKSTLOUIS.COM | FOLLOW US Interested in participating? Contact stlouisburgerweek@citybeat.com 16

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the mayor’s tour. In an interview with KMOV on May 7, he complained the news of the trip had come as “a total shock.” On May 12, during a scheduled tour of the jail by the Board of Aldermen’s Public Safey Committee, Vaccaro tried to shock the mayor back. Along with the committee members, he had invited about a dozen local journalists, including this reporter. Once inside the jail’s entrance, the media bunched in the small open space between a security station and the glass doors, waiting for Vaccaro’s signal. We watched the alders file through the metal detector and into the waiting area. But Taylor was waiting for Vaccaro. When he presented the group of journalists from the RFT, KMOV, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MetroSTL, KMOX and Real STL News — identifying us “as our guests” — Taylor held up a hand. “They’re not coming in,” she said. Over the next fifteen minutes, and with an audience of reporters watching and recording, Vaccaro attempted to negotiate with Taylor. He argued that a media tour was necessary for the sake of transparency. Taylor replied that the rights of the detainees were the city’s “first priority, and that while public officials could take photos of what they saw that day, they couldn’t film or photograph any detainees. Taylor repeated herself. There would be no media on the tour. “At the end of the day,” she said, “this is about —” “This is about transparency,” Vaccaro cut in. Taylor disagreed. “This is about people.” Vaccaro dug in. He didn’t believe the mayor’s April 24 tour had encountered the conditions decried in the press conference. A fact finding mission without the media to document the evidence, he argued, would just produce “a whole fake tour about nothing.” Vaccaro brought up complaints sent by former Workhouse residents who had already been transferred to the supposedly more modern downtown Justice Center. There, he said, detainees claimed they were being forced into even worse conditions. “So,” he snapped at Taylor, “don’t tell me we’re doing these people a big favor.” But Taylor didn’t budge. “There will be no media here,” she said again. “That’s the decision, and you can make me the bad guy.”

After an April 24 tour of the city’s jails, Mayor Tishaura Jones (third from right), said she was “disappointed and shocked and frustrated.” | COURTESY OF MAYOR’S OFFICE “No,” countered Vaccaro, “the mayor will be the bad guy, because the mayor is the one holding out.” He then turned toward the cameras and reporters, a few of whom were live-streaming the debate. “What are they hiding?” Vaccaro said, now facing his audience. “If the mayor’s office is so afraid of what’s in this building, why not be transparent? You guys should go ask her. Go to her office. What is she afraid of? What is the mayor afraid of?”

o understand why a media tour would become a showdown at the entrance to a city jail, you have to go back to the summer of 2017, when the conditions in the facility became undeniable — as the truth reached outside the walls through the voices of the detainees themselves. That July marked the beginning of the activist-led campaign to close the jail, which at the time housed an average of 700 men and women. The protests were sparked by a bystander recording footage of men pleading for help through the jail windows, shouting urgently for relief as the interior temperature rose to more than 110 degrees. The desperate scene drew national news, and while Mayor Lyda Krewson quickly announced the installation of temporary airconditioning units, the pressure was on. A lawsuit filed in 201 , al-

leging “hellish conditions,” drew further scrutiny and fueled calls for reform. So began the recent era of media tours at the Workhouse. The first journey into its walls, however, was a product of some deceit: On August 4, 2017, Alderwoman Megan Green brought two undercover reporters posing as graduate students through the Workhouse — a group that included this reporter and a writer for the St. Louis American. We did not identify ourselves as press. On that trip, we viewed trash piled in hallways and listened to multiple detainees describe the bugs, mold and misery of their lives. Most had been locked up for more than six months. Some had been there for years. Passing through a pod, a woman whispered at us, “This place is hell.” The undercover visit was followed by sanctioned tours. In March 2018, after months of requests by other news outlets, Krewson opened the facility to several TV, radio and print journalists. (Invites were pointedly not extended to the RFT and the St. Louis American.) From the outset, the city’s top public safety staff, who guided the media tours, used the opportunity to demonstrate that the jail was far from the awful image presented by critics. That framing showed up in the resulting stories. The Post-Dispatch’s coverage began with the

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observation that “Reporters saw no black mold, rodents or infestations of biting insects” and described the temperature as “a bit cool in some spots, comfortable in others.” TV coverage of the tours was similarly focused on evaluating the jail in light of its upgrades. When the stories included statements from detainees, the claims were paired with on-camera denials from Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass and Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards. Although most detainees experienced the Workhouse for long periods of time, the tours compressed the facility into a few minutes of television or a short online story. In Fox 2’s report, the takeaways included insights such as that “the Workhouse smelled clean inside” and that “for the most part, inmates appeared as content as one could be in a jail.” At other times, city officials were openly dismissive of the detainees’ experiences. In September 2018, Glass led a 30-minute tour for journalist Clark Randall, whose eventual story, published in the Guardian, described Glass’ reaction to detainees shouting complaints as they passed by the cells. One man, Randall reported, said he hadn’t been able to change clothes in two weeks. “We’ve had a lot of tours here recently,” Glass responded, “so forgive me that some of the inmates want to entertain.”

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HELP WANTED ST. LOUIS AND SURROUNDING AREAS

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In news accounts and public statements, the tours of 2018 produced a parallel version of the Workhouse from the “hell” described by current and former detainees — a contrast to the years of alleged abuses that covered everything from gladiator fights to overdoses, infestations to black mold, starvation to suicide. Notably, the public tours were never held on rainy days, and were often set up with plenty of notice for the jail’s staff. As a result, the Workhouse came off in subsequent news reports as rough around the edges but functional, secure and benefiting from millions of dollars spent installing air conditioning and upgrading the jail’s electrical wiring, security-camera recording system and showers. This tactic continued in November 2019, when Krewson announced a glowing report issued after yet another tour of the Workhouse — this time one not involving media, but a grand jury. “While suffering years of bad press due to poor conditions, the current reality of the Medium Security Institution (MSI) was far different,” the report said, as it praised upgrades to the jail’s “older, more problematic portions.” It pointed out “impressive new sleeping arrangements” and a bakery area “as well-equipped and clean as any commercial kitchen.” There was more to the apparent transformation than just physical upgrades, the grand jury found. While their report acknowledged the Workhouse as “still a place of incarceration,” the jurors had been impressed by something more abstract than the smell of a freshly cleaned hallway or “improved shower facilities.” The Workhouse had changed, the report concluded, writing, “It does not convey a ‘prison’ vibe.”

n an interview with the RFT, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones explains that she planned her April 24 tour with the hope that it would show her the “real” Workhouse, not just its best angles. “I wanted to see for myself, and I didn’t want to give them much time to clean things up before going,” she says. “They tried — I could definitely tell that they tried to make it seem like everything was fine while I was there. But even with hasty cleanup jobs, Jones says it was the detainees she spoke to who gave her “a totally different story.” One de-

scribed his transfer to the Workhouse from the Justice Center after a recent uprising. He was still wearing the same mace-soaked clothes and underwear. For Jones, it’s a question of, “Who’s telling the truth here?” “I’m more likely to believe people who are experiencing it,” she says, “than anybody else.” The April 24 tour was more than a public relations stop for the incoming Jones’ administration, and she’s referenced the event in significant ways through her first month in office. On April 28, for instance, she issued an executive order demanding the Department of Corrections provide “all complaints” from detainees going back to 2017. The announcement stated: “After personally witnessing unsanitary and inhumane conditions inside both facilities, Mayor Jones spoke with detainees who expressed concerns about the carelessness by which Corrections staff handled their complaints.” Closing the Workhouse by July 1, when the new city budget goes into effect, is a steep challenge. The city is rushing to repair its understaffed and embattled downtown jail, the City Justice Center, whose faulty locks were exposed in a series of uprisings and riots starting in December. Consolidating the city’s total jail population of roughly 800 into a single facility will be a tight fit. With the Justice Center currently functioning at only partial capacity, the task will likely require relocating some detainees to outside facilities, at least temporarily. These outcomes were acknowledged in the same budget that erased the Workhouse’s annual funding. Under Jones’ budget, the city set aside $1.4 million to pay for overflow housing in other jails. There are practical upsides to closing the Workhouse, Jones argues: It will allow the employees in the two struggling city jails to combine, resolving the chronic understaffing at the Justice Center that left detainees neglected and staff feeling unsafe. The Justice Center has gotten by with a dangerously low detainee to officer ratio, Jones says, adding, “obviously, that creates a situation where our jail staff can be overrun.” Under the mayor’s plan, the remaining millions that once funded the Workhouse will go toward aiding those leaving incarceration. That includes $1.3 million to expand reentry programs and to hire social workers and provide access to childcare and mentalhealth services.

In a dramatic showdown on May 12, Heather Taylor rebuffed Vaccaro’s attempt to lead a media group into the Workhouse. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI

Ward 23 Alderman Joe Vaccaro opposes Tishaura Jones’ plan to close the Workhouse: “This is going to put people in a much worse situation.” | DANNY WICENTOSWKI Reducing the overall jail population is the only lasting solution, Jones says. Along with promising to close the Workhouse in her first 100 days — a deadline that falls on July 30 — she’s announced potentially significant policy changes to the city’s public safety spending, shifting funds from long unfilled police officer positions to struggling emergency services and expanding programs for crime prevention. “This isn’t just about closing the Workhouse and just letting people out, this is about helping people get back to productive lives,” she says. “If people feel like they were treated fairly while in the system, with dignity and respect, and get support after they get out — that’s going to reduce recidivism in the long term.”

ay 12 was more than just the date of Joe Vaccaro’s attempted media tour of the Workhouse. That day, the mayor had her own plans. At the same time that Vaccaro was leading a group of reporters toward the jail’s front doors, Jones’ office was making headlines with a lengthy statement that had nothing to do with the alderman’s demands for transparency and everything to do with the conclusions Jones had drawn from her visit on April 24. Particularly, the press release mentioned the “first hand accounts from detainees … of lackluster COVID protocols, inedible food, lack of running water, rodents and cockroaches, as well as a fear of violent retaliation from Corrections staff.” The subject of the press release was the resignation of Dale Glass, Continued on pg 20

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whose oversight of the jails, according to Jones, was a “failed leadership” that “left the City with a huge mess to clean up.” It was the end of a nearly decade-long tenure for Glass. He had presided over the 2017 Workhouse heat crisis, the first protests demanding the closure of the jail and, in 2018, the media tours in which he dismissed detainee concerns as mere attempts to “entertain” for the cameras. That era was over. Glass, the mayor’s press release concluded, “was not asked to resign.” Vaccaro was outraged. In a recent interview with the RFT, the alderman argues that Glass was responsible for “tremendous” improvements to the Workhouse; he says the department has evidence that the mayor’s jail plans will end badly for everyone — especially the detainees crowded into the newly consolidated Justice Center or relocated miles away from St. Louis. “We haven’t fixed the problems, he says. “And shutting the Workhouse down will do nothing.” The Justice Center, he notes, has already endured multiple uprisings. In February, more than 100 detainees took over a fourth floor unit, with some using furniture to smash street-facing windows and light small fires that scorched the exterior. If the Workhouse truly closes later this summer, he predicts, “There is going to be such an uprising from the people who are being moved over to CJC and out of town. They’re probably going to break the rest of the windows out.” In Vaccaro’s view, Jones is trying to close an invented version of the Workhouse — a decrepit, crumbling and irredeemable jail that he says doesn’t actually exist. Based on his own tours inside its walls, he insists the Workhouse is much improved and, in fact, necessary for the well-being of the city’s detainees. It’s a notable reversal of roles. For most of the last four years, activists, attorneys and detainees have argued that the glowing reports of a well-functioning Workhouse were blatantly alienated from reality, representing a version carefully constructed by its defenders. Now, with the mayor on the side of the detainees, it’s Vaccaro accusing Jones of being disconnected from reality, spinning what he calls “a certain narrative that’s not necessarily true.” The swirling accusations also

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complicate the May 12 visit. Both Vaccaro and Jones dispute the other’s account of the tour’s origin: Vaccaro claims he notified Jones of his intentions beforehand, only for her office to retract permission in a phone call the night before. Jones tells the RFT she and her staff had “no knowledge of prior approval of his tour” and only learned of his attempt when it appeared on the Board of Aldermen calendar. “I did talk to her about transparency,” Vaccaro maintains, as he describes a phone call Jones says never happened. “I told her, ‘I’m going to do this. I’m going to take media.’” Both sides claim to recognize the real conditions of the Workhouse. But across news reports, media tours and lawsuits, the discourse has often become detached from its subject. In this arena, the experiences of detainees, jail staff and public officials are pitted against one another in a scrum of anecdotes, while the rare media tours attempt to extrapolate short visits into definitive descriptions of what it’s like to live there for weeks, months and years. Two pairs of eyes can look at the Workhouse and see completely different things. One day after Vaccaro’s tour, he uploaded several photos from what he described as an “unannounced” tour he took to the Workhouse in 2020, before the pandemic hit. This was the real Workhouse, he claimed. The one the mayor didn’t want the media to see. Two of Vaccaro’s photos show the Workhouse kitchen. Aside from some patches on the floor, the space appears neatly organized and fairly clean. One photo shows a large bread-making table and, in the background, freshly baked loaves stacked on a metal rack. Another shows a large bread oven gleaming in fluorescent light. There are no detainees in Vaccaro’s pictures. It is the same kitchen where, in early May, eather Taylor filmed cockroaches crawling on the spotted floor, just a few feet from the bread-making table and oven. In fact, the oven is among the only functioning appliances in the kitchen — with its gas ranges deemed unsafe and removed by 2018, today all food must be shipped from the Justice Center. Except for bread. It’s like Vaccaro says: When it comes to the Workhouse, it’s all about transparency. But the real question isn’t who is being transparent — it’s who you believe. And who you don’t. “I just keep going back to, you know, what are they hiding?” Vaccaro says. “There is, obviously, two different stories going on here.” n

CAFE

The OG Pepperoni pizza features a Calabrian chili-infused hot honey drizzle, one of the genius touches that makes O+O Pizza outstanding. | MABEL SUEN

[REVIEW]

The Real MVP O+O Pizza is serving up some of the best Italian food in St. Louis — and sometimes Canada Written by

CHERYL BAEHR O+O Pizza 102 West Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves; 314-721-5422. Open 4-10 p.m. every day.

ike Risk didn’t need confirmation that his eggplant parmesan was good. For twelve years he ran the kitchen of Trattoria Marcella, one of the city’s most celebrated Italian restaurants, where he got a lot of practice cooking the

quintessential dishes that define the cuisine. owever, he learned that the eggplant parm he’d developed for O O Pi a was the stuff of legends from St. Louis Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly. Over the winter, the hockey player developed such an affinity for the dish that he would order it often — sometimes multiple times a week. e was so enamored with the ra or thin layers of eggplant, chunky sauce and gooey cheese, in fact, that he wanted to share the love with his parents back home in Canada. With Risk’s help, he had two pans of the stuff shipped on dry ice so that they could see what he was raving about. It wasn’t winning the Stanley Cup or MVP that made him “Son of the ear it was the eggplant. That Italian food good enough to be shipped internationally was flying under the radar for the better part of two years is shocking.

owever, that was the case with Risk’s Mediterranean inspired evening menu at the Clover and the Bee, where he has served as executive chef since it opened in late 201 . Originally conceived of as a more casual complement to the powerhouse Olive Oak, the Clover and the Bee quickly made a name for itself as an essential daytime spot. Known for its excellent breakfast and brunch fare, the restaurant’s wait times for a table on Saturday and Sunday mornings rivaled those of its impossible to get into sister restaurant. And rightfully so. What many people did not know, however, is that the Clover and the Bee was also open for dinner. Though its evening menu started out more eclectic, it became dominated by Italian cuisine over time. Risk couldn’t help himself his experience at Trattoria Marcella made him proficient in that style of food, and he loved to eat it. So

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did Olive Oak’s co owner and general manager, Mark inkle, who, after returning from a vacation in Italy, encouraged Risk to go all in on making the Clover and the Bee an Italian restaurant, at least during dinnertime. Even as the Clover and the Bee’s daytime reputation stole the evening menu’s thunder, Risk threw himself into his Italian fare. The effort set the restaurant group up perfectly when Olive Oak moved from its original location next to the Clover and the Bee to its new, larger digs up the street. With the adjacent storefront vacant, inkle saw an opportunity to give Risk’s Italian food a spot of its own. With a decent part of the menu already sketched out, he and Risk finally had the space to go for it. In the initial stages of their talks, inkle wanted the new restaurant to focus on pi a. Risk balked as much as he enjoyed

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pizza, he worried that the place would become just another pizza joint in an already crowded field, and he wanted to fully showcase all that he could do with Italian cuisines. After numerous talks, their visions morphed into the outstanding O+O Pizza, a celebration of pizza, pasta and Italian fare that has quickly become one of the best places in town to enjoy this style of food. Risk may not have wanted O+O Pizza to focus exclusively on pies, but that doesn’t mean he skimped on them. Described as a hybrid of New Haven- and Roman-style pizza, O+O’s version is thinner and crispier than Neapolitan around the edges, but has a similar woodfired speckle. It’s a wonderful canvas for toppings or is stunning when simply adorned, as is the case with the O+O Original, topped with subtly sweet, rustic tomato sauce, Fior di Latte (a type of fresh mozzarella) and pecorino cheeses. The ingredients are simple but powerful, and show why just a few wellprepared and sourced components can make something magical. The prosciutto pizza is equally stunning. Here, just a tiny smattering of tomato sauce serves as the base for luscious burrata, butternut squash and prosciutto. God bless Risk for not overcooking the ham; though slightly warmed, the prosciutto retains its beautiful, silken texture. A drizzle of fig honey draws out its natural sweetness, as well as that of the butternut squash. It’s difficult to order anything but that prosciutto pie, but one bite of O+O’s OG Pepperoni might steal its thunder. Here, the sauce and crust are a beautiful vehicle for small discs of Ezzo’s pepperoni, a fatty, paprika and garlicforward version of the ubiquitous pizza sausage that many consider the best around. Fior di Latte and pecorino add richness, but the key to this pie is the Calabrian chili-infused hot honey drizzle that mingles with the deeply savory meat and vibrant sauce to form an otherworldly spicy sweet rich flavor. People are going so crazy for this honey that Risk started selling it by the jar and can barely keep up with demand. One bite of this pizza, and you see why his guests are eager to put it on everything. Despite the restaurant’s namesake, Risk was determined to make O+O much more than a pizza spot. He’s succeeded. In addition to O’Reilly’s favorite eggplant parm,

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LEFT: Chef Mike Risk excels at the new Italian eatery. RIGHT: Bartender ML Esquivel behind the bar. | MABEL SUEN the menu is filled with a number of noteworthy, non-pizza dishes such as the Fiore Farcito, a stunning handmade stuffed pasta filled with carrots, parsnip and coriander. The vegetables are subtly sweet and pair beautifully with the tangy lemon cream sauce and sautéed kale that dresses the pasta. Cacio e pepe, another excellent pasta, is like a grownup mac and cheese. Casarecce pasta is tossed with pecorino, parmesan, garlic and black pepper — just a few, simple ingredients that add up to something special. The beef short ribs are another outstanding main course. The dish is like the most perfect pot roast on earth; fork-tender meat, carrots, potatoes and thyme-infused cooking liquid are ladled over mashed potatoes so fluffy they are like a cloud. O+O Pizza also offers one successful small plate after another. Arancini is perfection of the form. Stuffed with fontina and mozzarella, the golden fried rice balls are a wonderful vehicle for soaking up Risk’s chunky tomato sauce. Pistachio pesto is a fun riff on the usual pine-nut-based spread. The dip is served with creamy whipped goat cheese, radishes and housemade crackers; the tang of the goat cheese pairs beautifully with the gently sweet pistachio. The calamari fritti is enlivened with pickled vegetables and a delightful lemony garlic drizzle, allowing the gentle sea flavor of the squid to shine through. It makes you wonder why the oft-seen appetizer is so often served with mari-

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Pistachio pesto and charred zucchini dip, toasted ravioli and arancini. | MABEL SUEN nara. Risk’s take on another ubiquitous appetizer, toasted ravioli, is equally outstanding. Handmade pasta is stuffed with beef, tessa and fontina cheese, which makes for a flavorful, more rustic textured filling than the meat paste typically used for the St. Louis staple. The extra effort translates into a truly exceptional dish. Even tiramisu, a dessert that seems mandated to appear on every Italian menu on the planet, is special at O+O Pizza. Whereas the dessert can sometimes get mushy, this version maintains a crispness thanks to a base of brown-butter shortbread and chocolate-coated cookie crumbs. As good as it is, the must-try dessert at O+O is the chocolate al-

mond olive oil cake, a chocolate cake so perfect it should be the standard against which all other chocolate cakes are judged. The brown-butter glaze and almondadorned whipped cream topping only add to the glory. If O’Reilly really wants to impress his parents, he should include this dessert in the next care package of Risk’s superb offerings. For those of us here in St. Louis, we should feel lucky that we don’t have to rely on international shipping to get a taste.

O+O Pizza OG Pepperoni pizza................................... $18 Eggplant parm .......................................... $20 Beef short ribs .......................................... $25 • Carry-out and dine-in

SHORT ORDERS

[ S T. L O U I S S TA N D A R D S ]

On the Job With 53 years under her belt, Donna Hollie is Lion’s Choice’s longest-serving employee Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

t was 1968, and a twenty-yearold Donna Hollie needed a job. After graduating from high school a few years prior, Hollie had been babysitting to make some money, but she was desperate to get a more consistent form of employment. The reason it was so difficult to find a job was one of logistics: She needed work somewhere she could walk to, and back then, her options were limited. After all, Manchester Road was a far cry from the buzzing thoroughfare it is today, comprising only a handful of businesses along its two-lane stretch of pavement. “There wasn’t hardly anything out here,” Hollie recalls. “Both my mom and dad worked, and they needed our two cars, so I had to walk to someplace. My mom saw an ad in the paper that said Lion’s Choice needed help, so I said OK and went to the interview. That’s when I met Clint Tobias. He asked me my grade average and what I liked to do in my spare time. I told him that I babysat right now but was on the hunt for a job and that I liked cleaning and was dependable. I promised him that I would work for him for a long time.” When Hollie made that promise to Tobias 53 years ago, she had no idea she’d still be working for the roast beef brand today. The chain’s longest-serving employee by a long shot, Hollie has the distinction of being with Lion’s Choice since it was just a single outlet that had been in business for only a year. Over her tenure, she’s watched the chain grow, expand and undergo ownership changes, making her the Lion’s Choice historian in residence, a role she embraces with pride. When she walked through those doors of the original Ballwin Lion’s Choice on September

Donna Hollie has worked at the original Lion’s Choice location in Ballwin for 53 years. | ANDY PAULISSEN

Hollie is not ready to pass the torch. The way she sees it, as long as she can still run the meat slicer during a hectic lunch rush, she should be good. Hollie says things can get hectic, but she will keep working as long as she can. | ANDY PAULISSEN 18, 1968, Hollie had no plans to make it a career. She had no plans not to, either, and she credits her lengthy tenure with the restaurant to the simple passage of time and the fact that she was treated well, especially financially. “I started out at $1.50 an hour, and they kept giving me raises,” Hollie says. “My mom worked for McGraw Hill, and she was comparing her wages to mine. She told me I was doing better than her — that my raises were comparable, but I got them way sooner. What she had

to wait for in a year, I was getting in three months. I said, ‘Well, I’m not going anywhere for sure.’” Those first couple of years turned into five, then ten, then twenty. Though she thought about leaving on one occasion early on in her tenure, she realized that she was only considering a move because she felt that she should, not because she actually wanted to. So she stayed put, making Lion’s Choice the only job she’s ever held. Hollie says that she sticks around because of the people. Whether it’s

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the roast beef regulars or the kids from the subdivision behind the restaurant dropping in for a nickel cone, she relishes that she is a part of her customers’ lives and feels thankful that they are willing to share a part of their day with her. The customer focus of the job has not changed one bit over the years, even as the brand expanded. The other thing that has remained consistent, according to Hollie, is the food. As the Ballwin location’s resident meat slicer of over five decades, she’d know if the roast beef changed — and insists that it hasn’t.

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Hollie’s order is unchanged — a classic roast beef with seasoning on the bun. | ANDY PAULISSEN

DONNA HOLLIE Continued from pg 23

The chain still uses the same roast beef recipe and seasoning blend, and has never compromised its standards. She believes the secret ingredient is not so secret: real roast beef. As she explains, Lion’s Choice uses real top sirloin roasts, not the compressed meat that other places use. That, together with the restaurant’s seasoning blend, horseradish and buttery buns, is the key to its staying power. “It still tastes the same as it always has,” Hollie says. “We added hot dogs and, a little later, ham, but other than that, we’ve kept things basically the same. One time I asked Mr. Tobias why we don’t have other things, and he told me that we have to keep it simple and focus on what’s important — and what’s important is the roast beef. He said that if we get in too much other stuff it takes away the focus, and that we were doing great the way we were. He was a smart man.” Hollie’s taste for roast beef sandwiches has remained just as consistent. Though she doesn’t eat them every day — she saves her sandwich orders for when she needs a treat or when her husband begs her to bring some home — she still regularly enjoys the same order she’s been eating all these years: a classic roast beef sandwich with seasoning on the bun. “Just the way they come, I don’t put barbecue or nothing on them,” Hollie says. “I like the buns and the butter on them. If I get fries, I’ll put ketchup on them. And I like the cole slaw, too.” Looking back on her time with Lion’s Choice, Hollie is glad things turned out the way they did. Her contentment is contagious; both her daughters currently work at Lion’s Choice — one in Wildwood

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Hollie says real roast beef is the key to Lion’s Choice’s success. | ANDY PAULISSEN and one who has been at the Eureka location 28 years. However, Hollie is not ready to pass the torch and has no plans to retire anytime soon. The way she sees it, as long as she can still run the meat slicer during a hectic lunch rush, she should be good. She doesn’t need the money, but she loves the job so much that she is going to stay as long as the company will let her. “I’m going to keep on until I feel like I can’t do it, but as long as I can still do it I will,” Hollie says. “What’s the sense in sitting home and doing nothing? I believe in working and doing things, because if you don’t, you will lose it. Your memory goes blank if you don’t get out in the world. I don’t want to be like one of those oldtimers — well, I am an old-timer, but I don’t want to be unable to do things. I’ll keep at it as long as I can and as long as they will have me. I asked them one time, ‘Well, how long can I work?’ And they said I can stay here as long as you want. I thought, ‘Yay!’” n

[ TA C O S ]

Spicy but Sweet Mission Taco Joint launches Mango Kween taco to benefit HIV organization Vivent Health Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

ission Taco Joint has created its most colorful taco ever with the help of two very special queens. The restaurant has announced the Mango Kween taco, a special offering available during Pride month and created with input from Kansas City-based drag queen and Ru Paul’s Drag Race alum Widow Von’Du and St. Louis cosplay personality Mera Mangle. The special item will be available throughout June, with proceeds from sales going to local HIV health outreach organization Vivent Health.

Mission Taco Joint is partnering with Mera Mangle and Widow Von’Du for a cause. | CURTIS EBL Mission Taco Joint chef Jason Tilford was excited to partner with Mangle and Von’Du on the taco and enjoyed the collaborative effort that brought the dish to life. Described by Tilford as “one of the most delicious tacos we’ve created,” the Mango Kween features a blue corn tortilla filled

with griddled Chihuahua cheese, wood grilled flank steak, roasted serrano tequila sauce, mango salsa and crispy fried onions. As Von’Du explains, spice and the shell were the main drivers of her inspiration for the dish. “Blue corn tortilla and spice was my first thought, Von’ u says. “I

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wanted this taco to be as colorful and spicy as my personality.” As for Mangle, she wanted to make sure the taco has a little something sweet. “I called Widow’s spicy preferences,” Mangle says. “I love mango, and I knew the sweetness and color would be a perfect complement to the carne asada and blue corn tortilla.” Though the Mango Kween is meant to be a fun way to celebrate Pride month, its purpose runs much deeper. A portion of money raised from the sale of the special taco will go to Vivent Health to aid in its efforts to support individuals impacted by HIV. According to Vivent’s Director of Development James Lesch, the collaboration is a special way to raise awareness for the organization’s efforts. “This partnership celebrates and supports the LGBTQIA+ community and raises awareness about vital services offered in our neighborhoods that help more people thrive,” says Lesch. “With Vivent Health’s recent merger with Thrive Health Connection in Kansas City, Missouri, this collaboration also highlights the integrated work being done across the state of Missouri for people living with and at risk for IV. n

JUNE 9-15, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

REEFERFRONT TIMES

[DISPENSARY REVIEW]

Tommy Chims Smokes Nature Med’s Weed Written by T OMAS K. C IMC AR S

t’s cra y to think that a few short years ago one could expect to be tossed out of a head shop simply for saying the word “bong. In those days of “tobacco water pipes and winking conversations with store staff, the need to employ language artfully made each interaction take on a delightful speakeasy quality, with no one saying exactly what they meant despite everyone fully understanding what was being communicated. It could be cumbersome, of course, trying to delicately express one’s needs without accidentally stepping on one of the trap door words — especially if you were ballsy foolhardy enough to try to talk a head shop employee into helping you score some weed — but it also lent a certain mystique to the proceedings that became a large part of stoner culture in its own right. Fast forward to today. More often that not, the first interaction I have when walking onto the sales floor of a dispensary goes something like this: B TE ER: So, what brings you in here today? TOMM : I have come here to buy weed from you. B TE ER: es, we can do that. I’m likely guilty of romantici ing a practice that was actually super annoying and only looks good now through the lens of time, but it just feels like something is lost in that latter interaction. The giddy thrill of speaking in code so as to evade the law is gone, replaced with a fully transactional and plainspoken approach not dissimilar to what one might experience when purchasing a toothbrush. All told, though, the new way of

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Flora Farm’s Sour Tangie strain came highly recommended by a budtender at Nature Med, and it didn’t disappoint. | TOMMY CHIMS doing business certainly has its upsides. Those advantages were on full display during my recent visit to Nature Med Dispensary (234 Kingston Drive, 314-939-1076), where, after handing my medical card and I to the staffer manning the front desk, I was greeted by a downright chatty man eager to talk cannabis in as much detail as I could possibly handle. ature Med’s sales floor has big “head shop energy, with glass cases lining the room on three sides and a wide selection of bongs, vapori ers, glass pipes, rolling trays and other paraphernalia taking up real estate on the walls beneath flat screen TVs that show menus of the shop’s T C options. At present, the dispensary only stocks Flora Farms flower, but that will soon change, my budtender explained before going on to enthusiastically tell me about each strain in great detail, and plainly from personal experience. A second budtender, who was otherwise unoccupied, joined the conversation as well, and soon we were just three stoners gleefully comparing notes about our favorite strains right out on the open sales floor — a far cry from the days of old. After discussing all of my options at length with my new pot pals, I opted to purchase an eighth of Sour Tangie ( 0), an eighth of Etho Cookies ( 0) and a mysterious one gram pre roll dubbed simply “indica blend ( 2 ). After taxes, my total came to 11 .21. I tried the pre roll first. A Flora Farms affair, this joint was more expensive than any of the others in the house, and apparently contained six different indica dominant strains — Fifth imension, Black Garlic, Cobalt

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Fire, GMO, Lemon Cheese and Miracle Alien Cookies. According to my budtender, it came from the shake at the bottom of several bags that had been delivered from the cultivator to the manufacturer for the sake of rolling pre rolls. That shake naturally contains more trichomes that have fallen off the buds, I was told, leading to its high T C rating of 2 . percent. My budtender told me he

S T HIGHER THOU G H

couldn’t even finish his when he’d gone to smoke one, and he said he fell asleep soon after he put it out, about halfway through. On inhale I found it to be a smooth smoke, though bewilderingly difficult to pin down flavor wise, owing to the wide selection of strains within. In any case, it was a pretty light flavor, and I didn’t find myself coughing much at all. I began to feel a super strong body bu after just a few hits, and I wound up putting the pre roll out just as my budtender had. My head felt pretty clear, with a bu y body high being the star of the show here, and a deep feeling of relaxation that gave way to a powerful case of the munchies and, soon enough, some dead to the world sleep. ext up, I got into the Etho Cookies. Flora Farms branded and rated at 1 . 1 percent T C, this bag boasted light green buds with a few dark purple spots, covered in trichomes and orange hairs. The

From the altered mind of

THOMAS CHIMCHARDS Welcome to Higher Thoughts, wherein ol’ Tommy Chims smokes one strain from this review — in this case, Sour Tangie — and then immediately writes whatever comes to mind in the hopes of giving you, dear reader, a clearer picture of its overall mental effects: no rules, no predetermined word counts and, most crucially, no editing. Here we go: NICK SMILED AS he handed the envelope over to his arch-nemesis, Mrs. Crandall. At last, he thought to himself, justice will be served. “You thought you would get away with it, didn’t you Crandall?” he asked rhetorically. “Well, once you have a look at these compromising photos you’ll be changing your tune.” Nick had never resorted to blackmail before, but he knew he was dealing with a monster. Mrs. Crandall had slandered his good name and betrayed him in a fiendish plot so twisted and diabolical that it pushed him over the edge. He had peered into the abyss, and in turn, it had gazed into him.

Mrs. Crandall looked at the photos one by one, hung her head, and paused before she spoke. “Nick, for fuck’s sake, you left the lens cap on again. Look, this isn’t some grand conspiracy: I gave you an F in photography class because you don’t understand a single thing about photography. The fact that you actually took the time to develop these all-black photos in a dark room only raises more questions.” Nick narrowed his eyes and pondered some questions of his own: When did Crandall have access to my camera, he wondered, and what’s a lens cap?

Was that helpful? Who knows! See you next week. Thomas K. Chimchards is RFT’s resident cannabis correspondent and amateur lens cap photographer. Email him tips at tommy.chims@riverfronttimes.com and follow him on Twitter at @TOMMYCHIMS

The head shop vibe of Nature Med Dispensary is strong, with cases full of gear. | COURTESY NATURE MED

Soon we were just three stoners gleefully comparing notes about our favorite strains right out on the open sales floor — a far cry from the days of old. buds smelled citrusy and piney, almost like Pine-Sol, and they crumbled easily in my fingers on breakup. When I took a hit, the lightly sweet smoke imparted less flavor than I would have expected based on its smell, but still had hints of the citrus. This hybrid strain delivered a relaxed, calm bu , pretty well balanced between sativa effects and indica ones, and I found myself repeatedly misusing words in conversation due to its satisfyingly brain scrambling nature. Sour Tangie was next on the list. My budtender had mentioned this was one of his favorite strains — he’d even picked up an ounce just for himself — and it’s easy to see

why. Rated at 1 . percent T C and, like the others, also coming via Flora Farms, this weed was an absolute delight from start to finish. pon opening the bag I was hit with a fruity tangerine smell like a punch in the face, its beautiful, bright lime green buds covered in a fine dusting of trichomes and an abundance of orange hairs. On breakup it had a dryish, almost styrofoam like spongy crumble, not too sticky, but with a good amount of keef. On inhale it had a delicious sweet taste, with the tangerine flavor popping up prominently on exhale and lingering there. As for effects, I found it to be an energetic and creative high, and soon I found myself pacing my house and racing through ideas in my mind, though I didn’t feel any of the anxiety that might usually come with more of an “upper high. All told, it was simply phenomenal. I really can’t say enough good things about this strain, and it will certainly be in my regular rotation going forward, as long as I can get my hands on it. And the only reason I tried it at all is the simple fact that I could speak so freely with the employees at Nature Med about the dispensary’s wares. For as much as I might nostalgically pine for a sneakier time in cannabis culture, I can’t deny that being able to speak so freely has resulted in me getting my hands on some really incredible weed. And in the end, isn’t that what this is all about? n

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JUNE 9-15, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

[ D R U G L AW S ]

An ‘Exceptional’ Case After nine years in prison for weed, Trevor Saller prepares for freedom Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

n May 24, 2011, two young men faced felony drug charges after police tracked several pounds of marijuana arriving by mail to a home in Warren County, Missouri, about an hour’s drive west of St. Louis. One of them, Trevor Saller, is still in prison. “I was young and dumb, and when you’re 21, I feel like a lot of people make decisions they feel poorly about later on in life,” Saller says in a phone interview from the Algoa Correctional Center, describing the period of his youth when a series of drug charges — along with Missouri’s harshest drug law — derailed his future. Now 31, Saller is among the more than 200 Missouri prisoners currently serving “enhanced” sentences under a law that for decades targeted low-level drug offenders with mandatory prison time ranging from ten years to life. The law, passed in 1989, applied a unique designation to its incarcerated subjects, marking them as “prior and persistent” drug offenders. For the last nine years, that label has defined Saller’s life. In 2012, Saller was sentenced to thirteen years in prison, and he’s now approaching his “conditional release date” set for August 4, 2022. The benchmark is one that most inmates never reach, because the vast majority of the state’s drug prisoners are released to parole after serving a portion of their total sentence. But Saller and the other “prior and persistent” offenders are not eligible for parole. As RFT has reported extensively, the law’s provisions were designed to take a drug crime that, by itself, would carry only a couple years behind

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In prison since 2012, Trevor Saller watched as Missouri legalized cannabis medicinally — the same drug that landed him a thirteen-year sentence. | IMAGES COURTESY OF LISA KELLEY bars and multiply the punishment into decades, even life, in prison. “The state of Missouri has decided to make me exceptional in this terrible way,” Saller explains, and points out that in the intervening years Missouri both repealed the statute behind the “prior the persistent” law and legalized medical marijuana. Neither development affected his case. “I’ve watched everything shift, I’ve felt things change,” he says of society’s evolving perspective on marijuana. He describes watching coverage of Colorado’s early legalization efforts on a prison TV, and then following the news closely as multiple states began addressing the damage wrought by the War on Drugs. “It’s difficult to process, he reflects. “If I sit and I think about it, I just go, ‘Wow, why am I still in this position?’” The answer lies in a mix of legal and legislative obstacles. Although the Missouri legislature repealed the “prior and persistent” law in 2017, the state’s Supreme Court rejected arguments from current inmates who believed that the repeal should extend retroactively and restore their eligibility for parole. The high court’s ruling was followed by action by Missouri Governor Mike Parson, who has vowed

JUNE 9-15, 2021

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to address the state’s backlog of clemency applications. His attention fell repeatedly on those cases from “prior and persistent” offenders left behind by the repeal. Over the past year, Parson has issued a flurry of commutations that restored parole to the “prior and persistent” offenders otherwise barred from early release. The clemencies led to the release of eight drug offenders, while a ninth, Robert Franklin, had his parole status restored by a governor’s commutation in May and is awaiting a hearing with a parole board. However, Saller’s clemency applications have returned only silence from the governor’s office. “It’s like the governor is my parole board, and that’s a tall order,” Saller notes. “Bless him for doing the clemencies, that’s wonderful that he’s been benevolent enough to do that for others, but it feels like there’s a disconnect in that I should have an opportunity somewhere to reap the benefit of the personal growth and personal change that I was able to do.” Saller’s case isn’t unique, but he is also an example of the struggle weighing on offenders trapped in lengthy sentences while dealing with addiction and mental-health challenges — issues that are made much harder, according to Saller, when you don’t have any hope of being able to demonstrate your rehabilitation to a parole board. “I haven’t always been successful in my prison time,” he acknowledges, adding that he struggled with depression and “issues with opioids” that he obtained illicitly during his first years inside prison. “I’ve had violations for drugs,” he continues. “I’ve fallen victim to demons from my past, but thankfully they haven’t swallowed me up like my friends.” One of those friends was Ty Kruse, Saller’s codefendant in the bust of the marijuana shipment in May 2011. While Kruse and Saller faced identical charges, only Saller had the prior felony history to make him “prior and persistent.” Kruse, meanwhile, fled the state, only to be extradited in 2014 to Warren County and sentenced to five years probation. In 2017, a probation violation briefly sent Kruse to prison, reuniting him with Saller in Algoa. “It was like seeing my brother for the first time in five years, Saller recalls. “I was just happy to see him outside of the drugs and partying and all the stuff

Saller describes watching Colorado’s early legalization efforts on a prison TV. “It’s difficult to process,” he reflects. “If I sit and I think about it, I just go, ‘Wow, why am I still in this position?’” we used to do. It was like getting to know him for the first time again.” Saller says he and Kruse committed themselves to “a lifestyle of fitness and health. But Saller still owed at least five more years in prison. Kruse, who retained his parole eligibility, was soon approved for release. It wasn’t the first time Saller had watched someone with similar drug charges walk out of prison, leaving him behind. In the fiscal year of 2019, Missouri’s epartment of Corrections released 626 nonviolent felony drug offenders after an average of under four years behind bars. According to the prison data, 93 percent of those drug offenders passed through a parole board on their way out. But Kruse had his own demons, and, in 2020, his life outside prison ended in a fatal opioid overdose. For Saller, the fate of his friend was a tragic example of drug addiction, but the divergence of their cases is also a reflection of Missouri’s failure to correct the damage of its previous drug laws, which, despite the 2017 repeal, continue to trap hundreds of people in prison. Saller can only wait until his time is up next summer. He knows that other “prior and persistent” drug offenders — some trapped in multi-decade or even life sentences — aren’t so lucky. “If I’m being honest,” he says, “there’s been a lack of people taking responsibility for the way Missouri used to be. There’s a vacuum, and people aren’t standing up and saying, ‘We need to right these wrongs.’” n

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JUNE 9-15, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

CULTURE

[VENUES]

Industrial Evolution New 3,000-capacity venue the Factory set to open in July in Chesterfield Written by

DANIEL HILL

ive music is coming to Chesterfield in a big way this summer with the opening of a 3,000-capacity space dubbed the Factory. The gleaming new venue is situated just off I-64 at the Boone Crossing exit, and the team behind it has just this week announced its grand opening, with a July 16 performance by Canadian EDM producer and DJ Deadmau5. It’s just one part of an eclectic roster of shows currently on the books that also includes performances by rapper Jelly Roll, pop-punk acts Simple Plan and New Found Glory, comedian Nikki Glaser and bluesman Buddy Guy. The 52,000-square-foot, newly built building that houses the venue is seeing the finishing touches to its construction now. It’s one piece of an ambitious development project called the District that will replace the Chesterfield Outlets. “The District is being completely renovated to be an entertainment and food and beverage destination,” explains Brian Carp, chief operating officer of the Factory. “So all the retail’s going away. Gap closed yesterday, Polo’s going away, Banana’s going away, all those retail ancillaries are going to stop. The Polo building will come down; there’ll be a gathering area in the middle flanked by four restaurants with outdoor patios. It will really kind of be an open-door welcome area in the center of the District. And then everything between Topgolf, Residence Inn and us will be all of these different types of entertainment features.” Those entertainment options

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The view from the stage at the Factory. | DANIEL HILL will include pickleball courts, escape rooms, volleyball courts and mini golf, among others, Carp says. The Factory will serve as the anchor for the west side of the development, with a location of the Texas-based family fun center Main Event holding down the east side. “We really envision this as you park once, and there’s things for everyone in the family to do,” Carp says. “Everybody joins back up for dinner, and then, you know, some people could come over here and see a show or do the types of things or go to Topgolf or whatever it may be. So really, the first destination like this anywhere in the country. Places have a music venue, places have Topgolf, places have Main Event, but there isn’t anywhere in the United States that has them all in the same location.” The ambitious project is being spearheaded by the Staenberg Group, the developer behind Chesterfield Valley Square, Chesterfield Sportscomplex, Chesterfield Commons and Chesterfield Mall. And though the Factory is just one piece of the larger whole, there’s been no skimping on the details, with Staenberg Group President Michael Staenberg putting the cost of its construction

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The industrial theme gives it an air of timelessness, even though it’s new construction. | DANIEL HILL north of $25 million. Carp was tapped to helm the Factory due to his decades of experience in the business at venues across the country. He’d previously held management positions at music halls across the U.S., including the Fox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado, and the House of Blues locations in both Anaheim and Dallas. He acknowledges that heading to Chesterfield for a concert might be something of a tough

sell for some city-dwelling folks, but his experience in the industry tells him that can be overcome if the booking is solid enough. “When I worked for Live Nation, we did a study when we relocated the House of Blues in Anaheim, that people will drive up to 50 miles for a show without really considering the distance,” Carp explains. “So what we see is all the way from the east side from Belleville and Alton and all those

The high-tech lighting rig/chandelier over the Factory’s dance floor. | DANIEL HILL areas, anybody who’s coming across the river for entertainment purposes, this isn’t that much further. Then there’s the St. Charles, St. Peters, Wentzville area. And then how far is it really for a kid at Columbia to jump in the car to drive 90 minutes to see a show?” In order to pull the caliber of acts that could convince concertgoers to make those drives, the Factory has secured an exclusive booking deal with veteran production company Contemporary Productions. Contemporary is something of a powerhouse in the St. Louis area, one which previously developed and owned Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre when it was still called Riverport and served as one of the Pageant’s original partners in its early days. Jeff Jarrett, senior vice president for Contemporary, says the group is intent on booking a wide range of entertainment options. “We’re going to have every type of show possible,” he says. “I won’t go through every genre of music — you know what those are — but we’ll do comedy. We’ll do, you know, kid shows, we’ll do lectures, we’ll do speakers. We also, while this is a concert venue first, it is open for private events, private parties. So it’s a great place for corporate events or, you know, weddings, if you want to somehow get married in a rock venue. But we’re going to be as open as everyone will allow us.” “We want this to feel, not necessarily like a community center, but an asset to the entire community, right?” Carp adds. “We want to do hip-hop, we want to do EDM, we want to do rock &

roll, we want to do country, we’re gonna have pop in here, we want to have jazz, we want to do plays, you know, that don’t have a bunch of set changes and those different types of things. The kid shows that Jeff mentioned. This facility is designed to be able to handle any type of production.” Part of the Factory’s ability to cater to just about any event is the flexible nature of the venue’s layout. In its full, 3,000-capacity setting it includes the floor area, which can remain open or have seats added depending on the show, a large second floor balcony and an elevated area in the back with tables and chairs. But the space is modular, with a sliding wall that can close off the back of the space. Depending on the configuration, Carp explains, they can scale from a 1,500 cap to 2,100, then to 2,350 and up to the full 3,000. This has already come in handy in terms of releasing new batches of tickets when a show sees more interest than originally anticipated, and it’s good for the relatively smaller shows in ensuring that a band doesn’t have to look out from the stage and see a half-full room. There are myriad thoughtful details like this that show the level of attention the team put forth to anticipate every possible problem or need. The multiple bars in the venue, for instance, are deliberately set up so that the stage is not in sight when you are ordering a drink; this is to help prevent a bottleneck in the line that might come if showgoers were able to lean back and drink there while watching the band. The sightlines

are such that no seat in the house is a bad one, with those more to the side up on the balcony cited as some of Carp’s and Jarrett’s favorites in the building. Naturally the lighting and sound rigs are stateof-the-art, but they are also modular and easily removable so that acts who prefer to use their own equipment can do so with little effort. “We’re thinking about the guests’ experience,” Jarrett says. “But we’re also thinking about the tour manager and the production manager that come in, and what the bands are going to do all day when they park three buses and sit at the venue. So we kind of thought, like, ‘Let’s make the experience good for everyone.’” In all, the team behind the venue say that they want it to help ensure the St. Louis area is recognized more as a destination for touring acts than it is at present — even if they are doing so from a Chesterfield base of operations. Carp explains that their intention is not to steal shows from the venues in the city, but rather to add another option for when those venues are already booked. “All those bands that skip St. Louis, well, most of the time they’re skipping St. Louis because there’s nowhere for them to play,” he says. “So we see this as one plus one equals three, not necessarily having to cannibalize shows from other people in the market. “For us, it’s really about showing that we’re a part of St. Louis,” he continues. “The majority of the staff is from St. Louis. I’m originally from St. Louis — I was gone for 23 years. Jeff’s not originally from here, but has been here forever. Michael Staenberg, the same way, he would call himself a St. Louis person. Our talent buyer who’s based out of Nashville, Dan Merker, is originally from St. Louis. The AGM I just hired is originally from St. Louis and moved away. So there’s a lot of people that are coming back. And there’s a lot of pride in what we’re doing, to be able to provide something for St. Louis. “We want this to feel like we’re all St. Louisans that are proud to be able to provide something for St. Louis,” he adds. “That’s really been the mentality of the design and development. Our goal in operating this place is to give back something to St. Louis.” n

riverfronttimes.com

[LISTINGS]

Do It To It If you got that shot, there are all kinds of events just waiting for you THURSDAY 10

COMEDY BENEFIT SHOW: 8 p.m., $15. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. ETHAN JONES: 6 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. IVAS JOHN BAND: w/ Johnny Burgin 7 p.m., $30-$120. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE JAZZ TROUBADORS: 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644. KODY WEST: w/ Grady Spencer and the Work 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. VOODOO JIMMY BUFFET: 7 p.m., $12-$23. City Foundry, 3730 Foundry Way, St. Louis, 314-282-5714.

FRIDAY 11

ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL: 8 p.m., $35-$45. The Fox Theatre, 527 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-534-1111. CHAOS BLOOM EP RELEASE SHOW: w/ RosesHands, Split66, Tanukis 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. FREE PARKING: w/ Niko, Into The Blue, Loftys Comet 8 p.m., $5-$8. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. THE GASLIGHT SQUARES: 6 p.m., free. Yaqui’s on Cherokee, 2728 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-400-7712. JACKSON STOKES: 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. JANET EVRA: 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644. JEREMIAH JOHNSON: 7 p.m., $14.95-$299.95. POWERplex, 5555 St. Louis Mills Blvd., St. Louis, 314-528-2020. ROCKY MANTIA & KILLER COMBO: 7 p.m., $30-$120. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THAT PURPLE STUFF: A PRINCE DJ TRIBUTE PARTY: 7 p.m., $10-$15. City Foundry, 3730 Foundry Way, st. louis, (314) 282-5714. TRISTANO: 6 p.m., $10. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

SATURDAY 12

AL FRESCO AT THE NATIONAL BLUES MUSEUM: 4 p.m., free. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis. AL HOLLIDAY AND THE EAST SIDE RHYTHM BAND: 7 p.m., $15. City Foundry, 3730 Foundry Way, st. louis, (314) 282-5714. ALL ROOSTERED UP: noon, free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $30-$120. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. CURRENT GROOVE: 7 p.m., free. Evange-

JUNE 9-15, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Maness Brothers will be returning to Off Broadway this week. | ADAM NEWSHAM line’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644. DOMINATION: A TRIBUTE TO PANTERA: w/ Beneath The Remains: A Tribute To Sepultura, Killer Of Giants: A Tribute To Ozzy Osbourne 7:30 p.m., $10-$12. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. FIRE DOG: 7 p.m., free. Citygarden, 801 Market St, St. Louis, 314-241-3337. LEE BRICE: w/ Lainey Wilson 6 p.m., $40. Chesterfield Amphitheater, 1 Veterans Place rive, Chesterfield. LIGHTS OVER ARCADIA: w/ Sonic Candy, Superkick, Superhero Rockstars 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. MANESS BROTHERS: w/ DJ Ronnie Wisdom 7 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. MISS JUBILEE AND THE YAS YAS BOYS: 6 p.m., free. Yaqui’s on Cherokee, 2728 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-400-7712. MO E ALL-STARS: 6 p.m., $10. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367. NICK SCHNEBELEN BAND: 3 p.m., $30-$120. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. ROSEMARY: w Vague Topic, Thirty Six Red 2:1 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SUNDAY 13

BIG JAY HOLLINGSWORTH: 7 p.m., $40-$112. Helium Comedy Club, 1151 St. Louis Galleria Saint Louis Galleria Mall, Richmond Heights, 314-727-1260. BROTHERS LAZAROFF UNPLUGGED: 11 a.m., $10. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367. BUCKCHERRY: 8 p.m., $30-$59. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. DRAG QUEEN MEAT BINGO: 1 p.m., $25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. DREW LANCE & CALVIN HERR: 6:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. GENE JACKSON & POWER PLAY: 3 p.m., $30-$120. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway,

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JUNE 9-15, 2021

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St. Louis, 314-436-5222. HUMANS & STRANGERS: w/ Pioneer Salesmen, Tyler Samuels Project, Niko 7:30 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 7 p.m., $30-$120. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. NEIL SASICH: 2 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. NIGHTCHASER UNDER THE BIG TOP: w/ Derrick Carter, Mark Lewis, Larry Lust 5 p.m., $30. The Big Top, 3401 Washington Blvd, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

MONDAY 14

LEAH OSBORNE: 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. MINDFUL MONDAYS FEATURING SPECIAL GUESTS: 7 p.m., $30-$120. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

TUESDAY 15

ERIC LYSAGHT: 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. THE MADMAN BAND: 7 p.m., $30-$120. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. MELISSA VILLASEÑOR: 7:15 p.m., $25-$140. Helium Comedy Club, 1151 St. Louis Galleria Saint Louis Galleria Mall, Richmond Heights, 314-727-1260.

WEDNESDAY 16

BABY SHARK LIVE: 6:30 p.m., $36.50. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St Charles, 636-896-4200. BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $30-$120. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. JOE METZKA: 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644. VOODOO LOOPS WITH SEAN CANAN: 6 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. WEDNESDAY NIGHT JAZZ JAM: 6 p.m., free. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367. n

SAVAGE LOVE DUMPLINGS BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’ve been living with my boyfriend for a year. We met on FetLife and I was honest about being in an open relationship (at the time) and seeking a sexual connection over a relationship. But one nut after another and pretty soon we were professing our love for each other, and he shared that he wanted to be the father of my children. However, right before he moved in I found out he was still texting other women despite asking me not to text, sext or have sex with any other men. He also regularly “yucks my yum” and makes fun of the types of porn I watch and calls it “gross” (my thing for cuckolding being his main target), and he also insists men can’t be friends with women yet he’s still friends with women he’s had sex with. He hides the fact he is masturbating from me but expects to participate in all my masturbation sessions. He claims we have no sexual secrets but I snooped and learned he was looking at porn with titles like “TS,” “sissy,” “gay” and “BBW Black.” It makes me feel small because of the nagging feeling I may not be his cup of tea since he hides these other interests from me while allowing me to hide nothing from him. I also worry that his “affection” for my black BBW ass may be no different than his objectification of trans women. He says he doesn’t want to “burden” me with “rapey” sex play, but I am open to all kinds of sex, not just the softcore-porn-type kind — so long as he doesn’t start by rubbing my boobs like they’re doorknobs. I am at my wits’ end. I already emailed an LGBTQIA+ friendly couples counselor because we are both scared the relationship will end. But I can’t keep turning a blind eye to his half-truths, double standards and hypocrisy. Feeling Extremely Tense BREAK UP. This guy sounds like equal parts asshole and mess. And he needs to work on that — he needs to clean up his mess — on his own. You can’t do the work for him, FET, and I would urge you

to resist the urge to use the relationship as leverage. Because by staying in this relationship despite his half-truths, his double standards and his hypocrisies — by sticking around to be shamed and manipulated — you’re sending him a message that says, “It’s fine, you’re fine, we’re fine. Perhaps I shouldn’t say, “You’re sending him a message, because this shit isn’t your fault, FET. But he will self-servingly interpret your willingness to stay and work on the relationship — as if the relationship is the problem here — as proof that he doesn’t need to do something about his own shit. He will assume he can continue to get away with being a controlling, manipulative and sex-shaming asshole … because he’s getting away with it. When your current boyfriend “yucks your yum, when he says the porn you like is gross, he’s projecting the shame he feels about all the non-normative (but perfectly wonderful) stuff that turns him on. When someone vomits their shame all over you, FET, getting yourself out of vomit range is your best option. And for the record: I don’t think your boyfriend is a mess because he’s interested in more kinds of sex than he admits or more types of women than just your type of woman or dudes or power games that touch on gender roles and/or taboos. And the fact that he’s hiding his attraction to trans women from you isn’t by itself proof that he objectifies trans women, FET, or that he’s objectifying you. You don’t know how he would interact (or how he has interacted) with a trans partner. What you do know is he treats you like shit and makes you feel bad about yourself and demands transparency from you without being transparent in return. DTMFA. P.S. Please don’t let his shitty comments about your turn-ons lead you to doubt your desirability — just the fact that you’re into cuckolding makes you something of a prize, FET, as there are easily 100 times as many men into cuckolding as there are women. It wouldn’t take you long to replace a guy who shames you for being into cuckolding with a guy who will absolutely worship you for it. P.P.S. I don’t think you had

This kind of shit always gets worse after the wedding; for example, it gets worse once getting away from someone like this requires lawyers and court dates. grounds to snoop, FET, or a need to snoop. You knew everything you needed to know about this guy before you found his secret undeleted browser history. Insisting you cut your male friends and exes out of your life was reason enough to end this relationship. Hey, Dan: I’m an out 26-year-old gay man with a 30-year-old boyfriend who is not out. That’s fine. Everyone gets to come out at their own pace. We have been together three years and lived together for two. Which is also fine. I like living with him. But he “jokingly” calls me his “faggy roommate” and sometimes puts me down about being gay when we are around mutual friends so people won’t think he’s gay. Just Over Keeping Everything Secret NO. Everyone gets to come out at their own pace — sure, OK, I guess, whatever. But closeted adult gay men don’t get to heap insults on their out gay sex partners in order to throw mutuals off the scent. (The scent of cock on their breath.) Unless you get off on this treatment and wrote in to brag (not a single question mark detected in your email), JOKES, you need to DTMFCCA. (“Dump the motherfucking closet case already. ) Hey, Dan: I’m a fit and healthy 66-year-old woman. (Vegan 53 years and have never been sick a day in my life!) I’ve been told I look 40ish — so not too bad! I was married for twenty years and then sat

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on the bench without so much as one date for eighteen years because I was a hardworking single mom of three kids. So I meet a guy about six years ago. I was dating around a bit at the time and figured he was too. Well, I later found out he had me “checked out and followed” and even hacked my computer, where he found a couple of sexy emails to another guy. We were not exclusive at the time and years later — six years later — he throws the details of one particular email I sent to another in my face every chance he gets. He has actually told me he was dating other women when we first met. Of course he was! No big deal at all but it irks me that he hired someone to follow my every move! (He even accused me of getting paid for sex and said he had proof! Totally false!) We have been engaged and I am holding back from marrying him. Otherwise he is good to me. What’s the deal here? Engaged Dame Grows Edgy RUN. This is emotional abuse — hurling that none-of-his-business email in your face every chance he gets — and it’s gonna get worse if you marry him. This kind of shit always gets worse after the wedding; for example, it gets worse once getting away from someone like this requires lawyers and court dates. DTMFA. There’s a huge difference between the kind of lapse in judgment that might prompt someone to snoop and hiring a private investigator to track someone’s movements. Someone who would do that — someone who would essentially outsource stalking you — isn’t a person you’re obligated to break up with face to face or sit down with to give them “closure. Prioritize your safety, EDGE. A text message and a block are all the closure he needs and far more consideration than he deserves. P.S. Veganism is healthy and an all-plant diet is good for the planet. And it’s wonderful that you haven’t been sick a day in your life! But we’re all going to die — it’s just that some of us are going to die with a slice of cheese pizza in our greasy hands. mail@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savagelovecast.com

JUNE 9-15, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

JUNE 9-15, 2021

riverfronttimes.com

JUNE 9-15, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

JUNE 9-15, 2021

riverfronttimes.com

Riverfront Times, June 9, 2021

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